Thesis - Antithesis - Synthesis
Cardinal - Fixed - Mutable
Yang - Yin - Tao
Magician- High Priestess - Fool
Emperor - Empress - Hierophant
My brain thinks in triplicities and I cannot unthink that way. I watched a YouTube video yesterday where the tarot content creator said that the Hierophant is the first card in the Major Arcana to not draw from the archetype of people but represent social structures or simply human institutions themselves. Authority, family, church, community, a court system, a board of directors. It is a conduit of law, tradition, custom, knowledge & wisdom being delivered to those seeking it with respect and faith.
Upright, it represents the best that an authority figure, church leader, coven leader, head-of-household, judge, etc., can do for those they serve and protect by decree, prayer, blessing and other acts of power. Reversed, something is challenging or obstructing the rightful application of law, justice, mercy, etc.
There's a lot of symmetry in this card. The pillars are identical in shape and color and match the Hierophant's own throne in color (the whiteness of purity of intention). His place between the pillars helps me with my belief that the Hierophant is the mutable, mediating force between the Emperor and Empress. Yet the Hierophant is also very much a polar opposite of the Fool, Authority vs. Freedom.
The red robes and red carpet represent the passion of intent. There is quite a bit of gold in this card, displayed not only with the hierophant's elaborate headpiece and triple cross but the keys and the Y-shaped trim on the acolyte's robes. Gold is the color of divinity and spiritual leadership in RWS.
The robes of the two acolytes differ but in a subtle way. Again, we see the red roses and white lilies found in The Magician to reinforce dualism being synthesized into wholeness.